Affinity in the Air
by LonelyLittleMuse
Summary: Something strange is happening in the Makai and its making the mating season into a very dangerous one.
1. Prologue

_Prologue_

_ Leaves were changing color from dark green to bright yellow and dark orange upon their branches. Autumn flowers were beginning to blossom to life and sweet, but strange scents began to flow through the air. Demons reacting to the odd scent began to tense as a strange frustration came over them. All across the Makai, things were slowly beginning to change, and something sinister was about to befall the demon world._

_ Meanwhile in the Ningenkai…._

_ "Man, I'm beat," yawned Yusuke as he stretched out his arms and legs from his seat on the sofa. Yet again he had woken up too late for school and just decided that since he was late anyways, why bother going. It's not like he was a model student anyways and he highly doubted that anyone would notice if he was there or not, other than Keiko of course. He yawned again as he stood up and moved to turn his game system off. The teenage boy decided to rummage the kitchen for his only sleep fighting savior, coffee. "Wonder if mom bought anymore yet..." He wondered as he opened one of the top cabinets, looking in the spots where they normally kept it. To his relief he managed to find a half filled container of dark roasted coffee grounds hiding behind a large box of cereal. He pulled out the container and made his way over to their small coffee pot. Lifting the back lid of the pot he filled it up with the required amounts of coffee grounds and water before replacing the lid and turning the switch to the on direction. To his dismay the house phone began to ring. "Better not be that binky breath toddler…."The raven haired boy sighed as he walked over to answer the phone._

_ "Urameshi speaking," he said and a cheerful voice replied back to him over the phone. That happy go lucky voice was unmistakably Botan, and with that thought he sighed. "Yusuke, Lord Koemma has another mission for you. I hope you aren't too busy, he says it's rather urgent. Kurama, Hiei, and Kuwabara have already been summoned as well." The bubbly reaper replied and Yusuke began complaining about being over worked and under paid, and then something about coffee, but she cut him off saying she would see him shortly. Hanging up the phone Yusuke glanced sadly at his half-full coffee pot. "One day coffee, one day…." Sadly he went to his room to quickly get dressed and ran out the door to meet Botan. Today was going to be a long day._


	2. Its dangerous to go alone take this

Tension was high in the Spirit World and its toddler sized ruler was pacing anxiously back and forth. It was obvious that something serious was about to happen and he could feel the three pairs of eyes all watching him.

"Where is that boy….?" He mused as he paced back and forth across the room, his arms behind his back and his eyes looking down towards the sandybrown carpet that covered the floors of his office. He began to feel less pressured as he felt one set of the eyes look away from him.

It was Kurama, the red haired fox demon. He must have sensed his uneasiness and out of respect or perhaps just tired of watching him wear a hole in the floor from his persistent pacing. Regardless of his reason, it seemed to provide the little demi-god with a tiny bit of relief now that one less set of eyes was glaring him down. The remaining two pairs soon began to wander off him as well, The three of them had all been brought here around the same time by Botan, since they were all in the same area. They had been visiting Yukina at Genkai's temple, when the bubbly ferry girl had arrived to inform them that they were needed in the spirit world for an important upcoming mission. They had already been there waiting for about thirty minutes or so and that only left for their fearless leader…Yusuke to arrive. Even though they were all used to the delinquents constant tardiness, the curiosity and sense of urgency that was implied about this mission was starting to get the best of all of them.

"Sorry I'm late guys," the unmistakable voice of Yusuke bellowed through the chamber of Koemma's office as he slammed open the large stone doors to his office.

"It's about time Urameshi! The suspense is killing me!" exclaimed Kuwabara as he turned to the other boy as he entered. Before anything else could be really said, Koemma had stopped his pacing and turned to face the four detectives.

"Now that everyone is here, I have a new mission for you and this one is quite urgent." He sat down at his desk before continuing.

"Aren't all of your missions supposedly urgent…." Hiei sarcastically stated from his seat upon a nearby windowsill. His eyes were closed and his arms rested behind his head.

"Yeah, is daddy threatening to throw you over his knees and spank you again….sounds real urgent to me..." Yusuke threw in his two-cents for good measure, which made the other three chuckle a bit, much to the dismay of Koemma.

"No, actually for your information, my father was the one that sent you this mission. As I am sure that you all have noticed that things have been rather slow around here lately, and well up until recently there hasn't been any real trouble within the Makai." Pressing one of the buttons on his rather too large for a toddler desk, he quickly summoned George, one of his most reliable and trusted ogre servants. Quickly the bluish pale ogre came bustling inside the chamber with a rather large book cradled in his arms. However, no sooner than he had entered the office, the ogre was already backing out the door. Opening the book, Koemma began speaking again. "A rare artifact, long believed to have been lost for the past several centuries has recently resurfaced, and to our misfortune it has resurfaced to a demon lord by the name of Logaust. Not too much is known about this demon other than he is an S class demon with a pretty decent following and from what I can gather he doesn't sound too friendly." Holding up the large book and pointing at a picture of a strange looking urn. The urn was a dingy slate color with several odd symbols written upon it. "This is the artifact known as The Urn of Desire."

"What does this thing do exactly..? Just looks like a stupid piece of pottery to me….." Yusuke interrupted, blinking his eyes a few times and scratching his head in confusion as he leaned against the way next to Kuwabara.

"Well I was getting to that if you would let me finish for once, Yusuke."The little demi-god replied a little bit irritated with constantly being interrupted." The urn of desire is a sacred and ancient relic to many of the Makai's old world tribes; it was fought over for centuries by many different rival demon races. The urn allows its owner to control a highly dangerous toxin and demons that are infected with the toxin are controlled by the urn's weilder, the toxin itself is a rare pheromone that only is secreted by a Snake demon on its on hundredth birthday and when it is inhaled under normal circumstances it typically repels other demons, kind of like a barrier, and if the demons ignore the warning and press matters then they become poisons by the pheromone and it will kill them in a matter of days. However if these pheromones are released during the demon mating season, it changes the effects slightly, into a more dangerous one."

"How dangerous do you mean, koemma sir?"Questioned the red headed fox, green eyes narrowing a tiny bit, he didn't like the sound of where this mission was going.

"It will intensify the effects of the mating season itself, creating a more dangerous and deadly situation…even the tamest demons, will become highly aggressive and deadly, we would run the risk of the Makai possibly being overrun by S class demons and possibly a massive spike in the population…the whole demon ecosystem is getting out of whack. Quite frankly I am worried that this could spread out into the Ningenkai , if things get too out of hand. And to make matters worse the demons seem to be seeking out higher class demons, that they would normally avoid, particularly, ones that are outside of their species…too many hybrids can be a very dangerous thing and there's no telling how powerful or what kind of hybrids this situation could create. This is why this mission is so urgent, the mating season has already began, and there's no way of telling how many demons have been infected and are under Logaust's control." Koemma sighed and stood up from his chair. He was worried, this was going to be a very dangerous mission and he was quite scared of the outcome…if the Makai became over ran there was not much he nor the spirit detectives could do about it.

"What about Hiei and I? Unless you have forgotten that we both are demons." The fox spoke up, moving a strand of red hair out of his eyes.

"Ah, yes I have already thought about that little issue, Botan if you would." Koemma stepped aside as the young ferry girl walked towards the group holding a small but strange looking wooden box in her hands. Extending the box out towards them she moved to open the lid."This is an experimental drug that will nullify the effects of the pheromone, it should work and just to be on the safe side I strongly suggest that all four of you take one." She waited as each of the four detectives reached inside the little box and grabbed a small greenish colored pill.

"Be safe guys and remember to use the communicator if you get into too much trouble." Botan smiled and waved them off as she opened a portal that will lead them to the Makai.

"Contact me once you have located the whereabouts of Logaust and the urn." Koemma shouted to them waving them off as well as they walked through the portal and once they had all made it through the tunnel back to the spirit world slowly disappeared, leaving them in the Makai. Hopefully they didn't run into too much trouble.


	3. Odd Serenity

Once the portal had closed, they were there…in the Makai. The Demon World had seemed to have changed not only by appearance, but there was a strange and unnerving aura engulfing everything in sight. Sure the Makai had always been unsettling and dangerous, but this odd feeling seemed so wrong, so unnatural even for the Demon World. In the visual aspect it seemed normal for the mating season, from the changing of the leaves to lingering musky smell of death, sex, and just plain demon funk in the air. Bright canary yellow leaves covered nearly every tree in sight save a few that was donned with a burnt orange color. There was an odd silence to the world. No sounds of demons in the near or far distance, not even the rustling of leaves or water was even heard.

"It is pretty quiet," mused Kurama, mostly to himself. He knelt towards the ground in order to examine a nearby plant as he spoke. Placing his slender fingers on one of the leaves he rubbed it gently, before moving his hand down towards the stem of the plant. It appeared healthy, but still it felt as if something was off. It felt as if its life energy was beginning to wane perhaps. Maybe if was beginning to feel the effects of the pheromone. He wondered for a moment of what that could possibly mean. Would it simply die, or would the pheromone alter it, perhaps a mutation of sorts. Koemma didn't mention that this toxin could affect other forms of life besides demons, maybe he doesn't know much more about this than he informed them.

"Yeah, I kinda expected to be ambushed by a bunch of sex-crazed demons, or in the least watched Kuwabara trip over a random corpse by now…" Yusuke joked half-heartedly, breaking the fox's thoughts and in the background Kuwabara could be hear mumbling something about how the only person that would be doing any sort of tripping would be Yusuke falling face first on his fist. He merely ignored him instead he looked down at the plant that Kurama had touched, eyeing the other boy curiously.

"We should be careful; it appears this toxin is affecting the local plant life as well…though I am unsure of which way it is affecting it." The red head added as he stood up from his kneeling position to face the other boy. He moved towards another plant to examine it as well. To his dismay it was the same as the last, but one thing he was beginning to understand or at least for a theory about was that this toxin appeared to expose its nature in stages. "These plants must be in an early stage still, it looks as if the pheromone was released a bit more recently in this area, perhaps the urn is close by…"

"hn" was the only reply that little koorime gave in response as he began to unwrap his Jagan. As he removed the final bandage, the third eye came to life, its large purple iris opening wide. Searching as far and wide as it could. He was hoping he could locate a few high leveled demons nearby at least that would give them some leads on where to maybe go next or preferably the urn. Unfortunately even with the Jagan he could not find anything, except a few low level demons in the Far East. "I sense nothing of real value….only a few weaklings in the east," Hiei frowned slightly as he closed his third eye and began to rewrap the bandages around his forhead.

"Well then, I suggest we head to the east, there is a good chance that these weaker demons are seeking out the urn as well." Kurama suggested looking back and forth between each of his fellow teammates.

"It's not like we have any other leads anyways," Yusuke shrugged in agreement, he really wasn't up for this mission to begin with and quite frankly he just wanted to hurry up and get it over with….not to mention, Keiko was going to strangle him for not only missing school again, but he was going to have to blow off their date tonight too. He didn't even get the chance to tell her that he was leaving again, she was going to worry on top of being pissed off at him. He got the bad feeling that they were going to be gone for a good while with this mission. "I'm so gonna get it when I get back…" he quietly mused to himself, pushing a few strands of black hair out of his eyes. Mentally he kept visualizing all of the ways that his little bundle of fury would possibly greet him with when he finally did return and to that thought he shuddered.

The leaves and twigs crackled slightly beneath their shoes as they journeyed eastward though the massive forest. The wind felt oddly warm, it was a strange breeze that did not feel natural nor calming in the least. It rustled through the leaves and branches of the trees carrying with it an odd but sweet smell. The deeper into the forest that they went, the stranger things around them became. The plants seemed to be looking weirder and weirder. More and more signs that they were infected as well were beginning to be obvious in the odd appearances. Some had odd liquids, deep purple in color, oozing out from their pores with a sweet scent emitting from the odd ooze. The scent was sweet, but semi-musky at the same time and it was quite nauseating, but not unbearable.

"I'm not sure, but I believe this purple gunk is possibly a solidified form of the plant's life energy." The fox looked saddened as he said this. He had a soft spot and respect for plants; he didn't like this at all. H e wasn't quite sure what to make of it either. It could be slowly dying from the toxin…or worse it could be mutating, it was still hard to tell at this point what was exactly happening to the plant. He decided it could be wise to have a sample to examine later once they made camp so he picked up a fallen leaf that he found on the ground nearby. He scraped at the ooze and pulling a vial out from the pocket of his pants leg he dripped a bit of the vile gunk into the little container.

As they adventured a bit further into the forest, the four detectives decided that they should perhaps take a short break. It had already been half a day since they had begun their journey towards the east. Still along the way they had not seen not a hide nor hair of a demon, instead they had only found what was appearing to be an empty forest and more questions, especially with the odd plants.

"We should make camp guys, it's getting late, and to be honest I'm beat."Yusuke stated as he stretched his arms outward and yawned. The others nodded in agreement. Kuwabar moved to start a fire, Kurama was sitting down next to one of the trees examining the vial, and Hiei had volunteered to take first watch. The raven haired boy decided to just stretch out on the ground and finally get some sleep. They would have to work extra hard tomorrow to make up any lost time they were about to lose.

Somewhere in the woods ahead, a loud cry of pain could be heard followed by the sound of something being violently ripped apart. The scream echoed through the woods it seemed and a lanky odd form emerged from a what seemed to be a motionless shell lying on the ground.


	4. The Dancing Forest

Several hours passed since the boys had set up camp for the night, Yusuke was curled near the fire snoring soundly with Kuwabara sleeping on the opposite side of the same fire. Kurama had dozed off next to a nearby tree while researching the ooze, Hiei sat next to him keeping watch, but he himself was beginning to slowly doze off. The little demon was more worn out than he had initially thought when he volunteered to be the watchman for the night. He lightly smacked the sides of his face a few times in order to wake himself up a bit. 'This will be a long night…' he mused to himself stretching his arms out, but still careful not to whack his partner in the face by mistake. What seemed to be another long hour passed in relative silence. The little fire demon was just about to give in to sleep when a rather annoying and obnoxiously loud screech echoed through the forest.

"What the hell was that?!" Yusuke yelled as he shot up from his makeshift bed followed by Kuwabara whom decided to refuge behind the other boy, apparently he thought he was going to protect him from whatever made that noise….

"A scream you moron…." Hiei replied sarcastically, the fox demon was up as well now, standing beside his friend and looking in the direction of the scream. Hiei wouldn't admit this, but he was a little nervous…especially with all the strange signs he had been seeing throughout the forest. Sure screams were a normal thing to hear in the Makai, but something about the screech was off…like it came from something unnatural…something that should not be. Crimson eyes narrowed and he listened more intently trying to sort out what the source could be. He didn't like the idea of the unknown and being blind to what was coming their way.

"Hey guys, I'm feeling something strange coming from that way…" Kuwabara pointed towards the far east. Blinking in a confused manner he double checked his senses. Surely that couldn't be right…"It kinda feels like a plant's aura….."

"A plant?" Yusuke blinked then narrowed his eyes at the taller boy slightly mocking him." Are you sure you aren't losing your touch with that spirit awareness of yours buddy? Last I checked plants don't screech…" He laced his fingers together in front of him, cracking his knuckles together. He was ready for a fight, this little stroll of theirs through the forest just wasn't his thing, he was itchin for some action and hopefully he was about to get just that. In the distance that lied ahead, strange sounds could be heard through the rustling of the trees, and there it was a again, that odd musky scent penetrating their noses again. The scent continued to grow stronger and stronger with each passing moment.

"I'm afraid Kuwabara just might be right, Yusuke." The fox stated calmly, sniffing the air slightly and weighing the possibility in his head. So his initial thoughts on mutation were right, something was definitely up with the plants…. "We should be wary….it appears we will have unwanted company soon." The redhead readied his rose whip just to be safe and the other boys readied their own weapons as well. The forest suddenly grew silent, the noises had disappeared and the trees were still once more. A soft barely audible swishing sound could be heard, but within seconds that sound had ceased too. Kurama eyed their surroundings, an uneasy feeling settling in the pit of his stomach. The fox's eyes widened before he yelled to his comrades, "I suggest we move quickly!" No sooner than the words left his lips, the Urameshi team leapt quickly in for opposite directions. The ground ripped apart as several strange looking creatures tore through the ground with what looked like thorny claws, the area had become difficult to see in due to the dirt and debris currently in the air. Kuwabara could be heard coughing from the dust somewhere in the mix and if Kurama strained his eyes he could see Hiei and Yusuke both standing up from where they had hit the ground.

"What the hell are those?" Yusuke spouted out looking at the strange beings as the dust and debris cleared away giving them all a pretty good view of their attackers now. The creatures were each quite large in height, easily taller than Toguro had been, but instead of being a hulking mass of muscles these creatures were quite slender and lanky. Their skin was a light greenish tint and seemed to be made from leaves. The calves of their legs and the lower parts of their arms were unproportioned to the rest of their bodies, they seemed unnaturally long in comparison to the rest. What seemed to be exposed bones, were sticking out from each lower arm and each calf, and the bones were covered by odd twisting vines that stretched all the way down to their long thorny claws. The claws looked razor sharp and with no skin covering them, but instead they were covered by a brownish shell like husk. Their eyes were glazed over and lifeless and their jaws were slightly jutting outward. Their long bodies were very lean, with sunken in ribcages and tiny little veins protruding slightly from underneath their leafy skin.

"Guess we have some gardening on our hands guys." He smirked and before he could even finish Hiei had already ran towards one of the beast with his sword in hand. His katana slicing through its ribcage and down towards its pelvis before the thing reached out with its claws and grabbed it by the blade itself. Purple ooze dripped towards the ground pooling near the beast's feet, it yanked the sword out from its body and before the fire demon could react he found himself being flung across straight into a tree.

"Hiei!" The boy yelled for his friend as the other boy flew past him, "Now you're gonna get it you stupid overgrown weed…!" Yusuke yelled, his attention back on the plant in front of him. Hiei was okay standing up behind the other readying his hand back on his katana. Yusuke already had his hand in its trademark position and fired off his spirit gun shooting it from through one of the creature's right eye. It shrieked in pain and thrashed one of its claws towards him, but he quickly dodged it. Another one of the beasts tried to get him from behind but was sideswiped by Kuwabara's spirit sword and Kurama's whip flew between Kuwabara and Yusuke striking down a third beast. This battle was surprisingly becoming hectic quite fast and several more of these strange Plant demons had shown up to join the battle. More than once the four detectives nearly hit one of each other in all the confusion.

"We need to get out of this forest, there's too many of them!" Kurama yelled to the others as he dodged attacks from two of the demons, barely missing the second one's claw. More of the demons began to pour into the fray and realizing the odds were against them the other boys came to an agreement and decided that fleeing was their best option for now. They broke from fighting and the four of them headed for the small gap at the end of the mass before a giant version of the demons stepped in their path. Yusuke and Kuwabara managed to slide between its huge legs and continued running their other two comrades not far behind they assumed.

They ran as fast as their legs could go before they finally made it to edge of the forest. Once they made it to the clearing Yusuke and Kuwabara stopped resting their hands on the knees and breathing heavily. Yusuke looked back towards the forest worried he was so sure that Kurama and Hiei had been right behind them. "Where's Kurama and the shrimp?" The taller boy asked in between breaths." They were right behind us…"

"We have to go back…they must…" before Yusuke could even finish his sentence a mass of long red hair came into view, its owner looking tattered and exhausted. He barely managed to reach the other two boys before he collapsed at their feet, his hand clutching at a rather deep would on his side that was bleeding.

"Kurama!" both boys yelled and reached out to their friend catching him by the shoulders before he could hit the ground all the way. Other than the wound on his side he seemed to only have a few minor scratches and bruises, but nothing fatal.

"Where's the shr….."Kuwabara went to ask before being suddenly interrupted by a desperate plea from Kurama, "They…they took him… they have Hiei.." coughing a few times the fox demon tried to stand, but was hit by a wave of dizziness. He sat there a few moments longer and tried to stand up again this time succeeding.

"We have to go back." Yusuke stated as he looked at the other two boys and they nodded in agreement. The three boys turned to retrace their steps through the forest in hopes of finding their other teammate alive.

Author notes: I appreciate all that have viewed my story so far, and I would really like some suggestions or feedback, anyone had some, if you do not like the story I am open to criticism, but please do not bash or flame it. I think criticism and suggestion can both benefit a person's writing for the better.


End file.
